A Bird in the Hand
by Vialana
Summary: Slash and Het :: After a spectacular disaster, the JLA decides the members of Young Justice still need more mentorship, but are too busy to help out themselves. So who do they call? The Superbuddies of course. Wouldn't you? HIATUS
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from DC Comics featured herein.**

_I know, I'm supposed to be working on other things, but I honestly could not help myself and had to write this story down and share with with you all._

_Timeline: This occurs somewhere after the "Formerly Known..." and "I Can't Believe..." minis and during Young Justice, post Sins of Youth but pre Apokolips war (I don't care if it doesn't fit continuity)_

_Pairing: Beetle/Booster, with possible other pairings_

**A Bird in the Hand**

**Prologue  
**  
All in all, it could have been worse.

With someone like Impulse around, there's always a way for things to take a turn for the worst. Combining Impulse's ... impulsiveness with a horny Superboy and a violently ticked-off Wonder Girl, it really was amazing that more than just YJHQ hadn't exploded yet. Or that Robin hadn't even yelled at them for it yet. Honestly, for them, that was the scarier part.

Superman had shaken his head disappointedly. Flash had groaned and snapped. Wonder Woman yelled. Batman was silent and intimidating. Green Lantern shuffled his feet (it wasn't that long ago that he'd made mistakes like that after all). Plastic Man tried to act serious, but when had that ever worked? It was mostly J'onn who lectured them on their responsibilities. He was so good at it after all.

Superboy tried to look chastised and failed miserably. Wonder Girl was near tears when her anger finally faded and the humiliation kicked in. Impulse hadn't been paying attention since they got there. Lil' Lobo ignored them and played with a mini game station he'd nicked from Impulse the day before. Empress stood confident, eying the JLA disdainfully behind her mask. Secret was hiding behind Robin, who stood so still with an expression so controlled on his face that even Impulse realised it would be a very bad idea to address him directly for the next few hours.

Luckily, the JLA seemed to recognise Robin's fury and avoided him like the Clench (definitely trained by the World's Greatest Detective).  
Of course, just as J'onn was winding down and about to proclaim some inane punishment for them, Impulse had to interrupt with one of the questions naughty boys and girls around the world knew never to interrupt a lecture with.

"Look, can we go yet?"

It was unanimously decided that their punishment was completely Impulse's fault — as most things that happened to Young Justice turned out to be.

Lobo and Robin were the only ones who didn't shiver at the look that crossed Batman's face when J'onn proclaimed their punishment: Lobo through years of developing a superiority complex and Robin, through years of practice.

This would not be fun.


	2. Standardised Testing

**Part One: Standerdised Testing for the Not-So-Standard**

Superboy was shaking as they walked out of the room they'd been locked in for the previous three hours. Impulse didn't look much better, having been forced to sit still for so long. Wonder Girl was scowling, muttering under her breath about teammates leaving the field of battle in the darkest hour.

Lobo had heard what the JLA planned and said "Frag this," grabbed Empress (who wasn't protesting as much as she could have been) and called for the Super-cycle to take them somewhere — anywhere — else. The five remaining members had to deal with the JLA on their own.

Secret was looking puzled by their reactions. "Was it really that bad?" she wondered aloud. "It's better than yelling."

"They're sadists," Superboy hissed, Impulse agreed: his head blurring. Wonder Girl was still grumbling and Robin was ominously silent.

Secret looked at the Boy Wonder in concern when he still hadn't said anything, even after three hours. "What did you think of it Robin?" she ventured, hoping his mood had lightened. Or at least that he wouldn't yell _too_ loudly at her.

Robin just continued walking down the hallway of the Watchtower towards the main meeting room. Secret's hopeful expression fell and Wonder Girl stopped cursing Lobo and Empress under her breath long enough to glare at the caped boy. Superboy just snorted in disgust and folded his arms, following their 'leader': the rest of Young Justice falling in behind.

The Justice League had probably not finished with them yet.

* * *

"Booster! Beetle!"

The two troublemaking heroes camped out on the couch in the Superbuddies HQ rec room both started out of the doze they'd slowly been falling into. Mary Marvel, sitting on the armchair, glanced at them curiously before returning her attention to the television screen where "The Sound of Music" played.

"What have you two done now?" Ralph stretched his head around from the kitchen to stare exasperatedly at the dumbfounded duo.

"Nothing," Booster insisted. When Ralph just rolled his eyes, Booster scowled. "I'm serious, we haven't done anything!"

Ted shrugged and got up from the couch, stretching his back out. "Max is probably just being grouchy. Better go see what he wants."

"But we haven't actually done anything this time!" Booster continued to protest as he followed Ted to Max's office.

Maxwell Lord was scowling as the two entered. This wasn't unusual, especially not when the two of them were anywhere in the near vicinity, but since neither of them had a clue why Max was scowling this time they were actually a little nervous.

"Can you explain to me," Max began in that calm-yet-barely-an-inch-from-exploding businessman tone of his, "why the Justice League has demanded our immediate attendance in the Watchtower?"

Ted and Booster shared equally puzzled looks with each other and shook their heads.

"No, seriously, tell me."

"Honstely Max, I've got no clue," Ted held up his hands. "It's entirely possible Booster did something without knowing it——"

"Hey!"

"——but I'm innocent."

"I haven't done anything! Why won't anyone believe that?"

"Your record speaks for itself, Booster," Ted told him. "And that's without adding in the stuff you've done unconsciously."

Booster crossed his arms childishly over his chest but didn't argue.

Max ran his hands over his face and sighed. "Well, something's happened, and it sounds serious so we'd better not argue this. Get everyone up and in costume now."

"Ja, mine führer." Booster saluted while Beetle rolled his eyes and shoved his best friend out the doorway.

"You're not allowed to watch bad WW2 war movies again," Ted scolded.

"Aw, but——"

"No."

"My Lordliness," L-Ron piped up from behind the pile of paperwork on his tiny robot desk shoved in one corner of Max's office. "It is possible they're telling the truth and they have nothing to do with this situation."

Max got up and started rolling down his sleeves, frowning at the AI. "L-Ron, you've been with us for quite a while now. When has that ever been the case?"

L-Ron was silent for a minute, sorting through his memories.

"Well … statistically, your deilciousness, it has to happen sometime."

"I don't think those two should ever be counted among normal statistics." Max grabbed his suit jacket and headed out the door.

"You're quite right, most high slicknessness," L-Ron followed mournfully.

"Of course I am."

* * *

They arrived almost three hours after the call from the JLA came in.

Booster had walked in on Bea in a rather … compromising situation, despite the very heavily barricaded and locked door to her quarters. That resulted in quite a lot of structural damage and a numerous burns that Sue had almost refused to treat just to teach Booster a lesson.

None of them had really wanted to interrupt Mary's viewing time since the girl tended to forget her strength when she got emotional. (Plus, no one wanted to have to watch the movie a again any time in the next few months just to appease the girl.) So they'd had to wait at least an hour for that to finish.

There was a random burglary as they were leaving and a few complaints from the neighbours to deal with, so by the time they reached the nearest teleporter they were officially very late. Late enough that, were this a world-in-dire-straits situation, the world's straits would be very dire indeed.

Max led the way from the teleporters, trying to ignore the wacky hijinks going on behind him.

Ralph was pointing out every new thing that had been added since his last visit while Sue clenched her teeth before saying he coldn't tell what was new or not around here since it all looked like the same gray metal down every corridor. Bea was insisting, rather distractedly, that it wasn't Mary's fault that they were late, that of course they'd all wanted to finish watching the movie and that, if it was anyone's fault, it was probably Booster and Beetle's. A half-hearted protest was raised by the two, only because — thinking about it — it was probably true that whatever they'd been called to the Watchtower for was their fault.

"It makes a father proud, doesn't it, Papa-Lord?"

"You know, L-Ron," Max glanced down at the robot beside him, "the Antarctica branch is looking for a new managerial assistant."

L-Ron was silent for a moment.

"Have I mentioned how much I like your shoes today, Mr. Lord?"

"No, but thank you for the compliment, L-Ron."

"My pleasure, your most wonderfulness."

The open door to the main JLA briefing room came into view and the Superbuddies all walked in apprehensively.

No one said anything. The gathered members of the JLA all looked stern, but that was expected. What wasn't expected was the five sullen and apprehensive young superheroes sitting at the briefing table. Considering the way everyone was situated around the room, it was obvious Young Justice were in the JLA's bad books. The reason for the Superbuddies being there was still eluding them all. But that wasn't what was important.

"Ha! I told you I hadn't done anything wrong!"


	3. Failed Logic

**Failed Logic**

Once everyone had been seated and order reigned in the JLA meeting room, J'onn outlined the plan the JLA had come up with while Young Justice had been sequestered in their examination room answering pointless questionnaires for three hours.

Complete silence was the first reply.

"No freaking way!" Was the second, supplied by Superboy.

"I think it's a wonderful idea." Mary's smiling opinion caused another round of silence. She shrank down in her seat, disheartened.

J'onn cleared his throat. "No matter what you think of it, the decision stands. Young Justice needs mentoring, preferably from those they normally do not associate with." Here, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash all nodded. Batman didn't move. "The Titans have other young superheroes they are helping develop their powers and the JSA and JLA are too far widespread and have less time to devote to extra attention. Most of your group have had experience in the Justice League and, considering the domestic nature of your enterprise, would be ideally suited for such a task."

Maxwell Lord stood up after J'onn had explained himself, trying not to look furious, but failing to stop his eye twitching. "This is quite an important decision to be making without my, or any of the Superbuddies', consent."

"And ours!" Superboy piped up indignantly. Wonder Girl looked just as disgruntled, while Impulse was glancing around distractedly, already bored, and tugging at the restraints holding him to the chair.

"You're minors," Superman said. "And in regards to situations like this, the JLA must be the ones to take control of the situation."

"It wasn't that bad," Wonder Girl protested.

"Would you like me to read out the damage report or the _bill_ for the damages?" Batman asked. Wonder Girl shook her head and shrank back in her seat.

"This is for your own good," Wonder Woman assured them. "We've contacted your guardians and they've agreed that measures must be taken."

"My mother agreed?" Wonder Girl asked.

"She did, so long she was assured I would be looking out for you. I will check up on you if necessary and I'm sure Troia would love to visit you also."

"Excuse me princess," Max cut in with a scowl, "but I haven't exactly agreed to anything here. You're all just assuming that because we work on a domestic scale that the Superbuddies aren't just as busy as the rest of you."

"But we aren't," Booster argued. "The last 'crisis' we faced involved a puppy, three hot dogs and a disgruntled security officer."

"That's not the point."

"Oh, let 'em stay Max," Sue said. "Who knows, it might be fun having some children around."

"Are you working with the same superhero team I am, because from where I'm sitting, I see nothing but children."

"You really want your limo melted into scrap, don't you?" Beatriz asked cheerfully.

"Fire excluded, of course," Max remedied.

"I'd protest too if I thought anyone'd listen," Ted grumbled.

"Yes, because you're so mature these days," Booster sniped back.

"Regardless," — despite how loudly everyone was arguing, Batman never had to raise his voice and all sound ceased immediately — "the decision has been made and agreed upon. Besides, it might improve publicity for both teams." This was obviously directed at Max, though a quick glare was sent at the younger team as well.

"Why not," Ralph shrugged. "Not like we've actually got anything better to do."

"I thought it was a wonderful idea from the start," Mary said, still pouting. "It will be nice to have other people my own age around. Oh!" She smiled brightly. "We'll have so much fun together, we'll save the world, and bake cookies——"

"Don't get too excited," Beatriz cut her off. "Not everyone's as happy with this as you are."

"Oh, Bea," Mary pouted, crestfallen.

"Not the pout," Beatriz muttered, averting her eyes heavenwards. "All right, fine, I don't care, do what you want." Mary squealed right in her ear and squeezed the air from her lungs. "Breathing! Breathing!"

"Oh! I'm so sorry." Mary let her go with a horrified look.

"That makes four," Sue counted. "So, even if you three say no, majority rules."

"When did the decision making around here become a democratic process?" Max scowled, ignoring L-Ron's muttering of, "What am I? Spare parts?"

"The minute you invited someone other than yourself to join," Sue retorted

Superboy was sick of being completely ignored by everyone and finally shouted, "Do we seriously not get a say in this whatsoever?"

"No!" Every single one of the adults shouted back.

"I was just saying." He shrunk back in his seat.

"Look," Booster filled the void after that outburst, "I don't care, Ted probably doesn't care——"

"You're a mind-reader now?" Ted muttered. Quite a few people shuddered at the thought.

"Well do you care?" Booster asked.

"Not really, but that doesn't mean that I necessarily think it's a good idea."

"So we'll count you as half a vote then. So that's what, five and a half votes to one and a half. Sue wins, we take the kids. Problem solved. Everyone's happy."

"We're not," Superboy and Wonder Girl muttered, but everyone ignored them.

"Fine," Max growled. "But when we get back we're having a discussion about respecting your leaders."

"Max, seriously, it's _us_," Booster said. "Have you ever known us to cooperate effectively with our leaders?"

Max floundered, searching for a reply. "I give up. Do what you want, but you," he pointed at Booster, "stop being so freakingly intuitive!"

"What, so Beetle's allowed to be mature and I'm not?"

"Exactly."

"That's so not fair! J'onn, tell Max he's being mean!"

Once again, as it always happened with this lot, the Martian's patience had worn thin enough that he'd started to develop a headache. "Just … go. Take the children and leave. We've got a world to keep turning."

"Wait," Ted frowned as he glanced over at the sulking teenagers. "Shouldn't we organise this a little better? I'm sure that not all the others have this problem, but I do have a company to run as well as all this."

"You're the only one who has the problem Beetle," Batman said. "And I've already taken that into consideration. I would like it then, instead of working with your team and Young Justice as a whole, if you would just take Robin under your wing."

This comment resulted in the silence to end all silences. There had been many shocking and strange things said that day, but this …

"Are you serious?" Surprisingly, this outburst didn't come from Ted (who was still too flabbergasted to speak) but from the young Robin himself, who was as inscrutable as his mentor. It didn't escape the attention of the rest of Young Justice that this was the first time he'd talked in hours.

"I am," Batman confirmed (as if it needed confirmation).

"A-Are you sure?" Ted asked, his gaze darting from Batman to Robin and back again.

"Completely." There wasn't a hint of a smile on his face, but for some reason Batman almost looked amused. But of course that couldn't be true. It was _Batman_.

"Well then." Max coughed, trying to bring something resembling normality back to the meeting room. "Now that everything has been decided," he glared at Sue, "we should be on our way."

"Yes," J'onn agreed, wanting them to get out as fast as possible. "We will contact you again should something come up."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Max drawled.

"Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, Secret, Robin, if you will follow the Superbuddies."

Superboy and Wonder Girl rolled their eyes at each other and rose from their seats to trudge over to the superheroes. Marvel Girl beamed at them, waving frantically while the rest gave smiles of varying enthusiasm. Impulse bounded over as soon as he was released and Secret followed curiously, though she kept glancing back at Robin, who was making his way over to Batman instead of the others.

Superman and Wonder Woman went over to have a quick word with their namesakes while Flash tried to talk with Impulse. No one was paying much attention to the Dark Knight and his protégé.

"So, Blue Beetle," Robin said.

"Yes, I think he'll be an adequate mentor for you. He is intelligent, despite the stories you may have heard."

"I … I just …" Batman waited patiently for Robin to say what he really wanted to say. Instead of using words, Robin threw his arms around Batman in a quick hug before whispering, "Thank you Bruce," and dashing over to the astonished Young Justice with something very close to a grin on his face. Sure, no one had been paying that much attention to their conversation, but _hugging_ _Batman_? That'd be enough to stop even the Joker in his tracks.

"I forgot his birthday," Batman muttered when Superman and Wonder Woman shot him looks. "It happened when Gotham was No Man's Land."

"Of course," Superman and Wonder Woman agreed placidly.

Ted glanced at the enthusiastic Robin by his side. "Hi," he said warily.

"Blue Beetle, it is such an honour, I've wanted to work with you for so long." The boy almost looked like he was bouncing — as much as anyone trained by Batman could look like that. It was hard to stay aloof in the face of such zeal. Plus, flattery always worked.

"Really? I'm a little surprised at that actually — with you being trained by Batman and all."

"You shouldn't be surprised, you're great. I've read so much about you. I just … I'm really looking forward to being partners." He looked down at this, bashful at admitting such a thing. Ted couldn't help smiling at the endearing sight.

"I'm really looking forward to it too."

While Young Justice looked on in shock (and debated among themselves whether some sort of alien parasite was living inside Robin's head to make him act so out of character), Booster Gold focused intently on something almost inconsequential within the conversation.

"_Partners_?"


End file.
